VII. (1-6) The Apostle takes up an idea to which he had alluded in Romans 7:14 of the preceding chapter, “Ye are not under the Law, but under grace;” and as he had worked out the conclusion of the death of the Christian to sin, so now he works out that of his death to the Law. This he does by an il... [ Continue Reading ]
KNOW YE NOT. — Here again insert “or”: _Or know ye not,_ &c., carrying on the thought from the end of the last chapter. Is not, argues the Apostle, what I say true? Or do I hear the old objection raised again, that the system under which the Christian is living is not one of grace in which eternal l... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THE WOMAN WHICH HATH AN HUSBAND. — The illustration is not quite exact. The Law is here represented by the husband, but the Apostle does not mean to say that the Law dies to the Christian, but the Christian to the Law. The proposition must therefore be understood to be stated in a somewhat abstr... [ Continue Reading ]
ARE BECOME DEAD. — _Were rendered dead_ — somewhat stronger than simply “ye died.” BY THE BODY OF CHRIST — _i.e.,_ by the death of the human body of Christ upon the cross. The Christian, as the last chapter has shown, is so united to Christ that whatever has happened to his Master has happened also... [ Continue Reading ]
The new alliance ought not to be unproductive, for the old alliance was not unproductive. Before that mortification of the flesh which proceeds from our relation to the death of Christ, we bore a fruit generated through our carnal appetites by the Law, and the only being to whose honour and glory th... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT BEING DEAD. — Our translators seem to have had a false reading here, which is not found in any MS., but arose from an error of Beza and Erasmus in interpreting a comment of Chrysostom’s. The true reading runs thus: “But as it is we were” (not “are”) “delivered from the Law, having died to that... [ Continue Reading ]
WHAT SHALL WE SAY THEN? — The Apostle had spoken in a manner disparaging to the Law, and which might well give offence to some of his readers. It was necessary to correct this. And so now he proceeds to lay down more precisely in what it was that the Law was defective, and what was its true function... [ Continue Reading ]
TAKING OCCASION. — The word in the Greek implies originally a military metaphor: taking as a “base of operations,” _i.e.,_ an advanced post occupied as the starting-point and rendezvous for further advances. Sin is unable to. act upon man without the co-operation of law, without being able to hold u... [ Continue Reading ]
I WAS ALIVE. — The state of unconscious morality, uninstructed but as yet uncondemned, may, compared with that state of condemnation, be regarded as a state of “life.” REVIVED. — The English version well represents the meaning of the original, which is not that sin “came to life,” but that it “came... [ Continue Reading ]
WHICH WAS ORDAINED TO. — “The very commandment which was for life I found to be for death” (Ellicott). The Law was instituted in order that it might give life to those who were under it and who kept it. They did not keep it, and therefore it brought them not life but death.... [ Continue Reading ]
(11-13) The cause of this miscarriage lay not with the Law but with Sin. Sin played the tempter, and then made use of the Commandment to condemn and destroy its victims. All this time the Law (_i.e.,_ the whole body of precepts) and the Commandment (_i.e.,_ the particular precepts included in the La... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEREFORE. — This word introduces a conclusion, not from the verse immediately preceding, but from the whole of the last five verses. The Apostle glances back for a moment over the course of his argument.... [ Continue Reading ]
WAS THEN THAT WHICH IS GOOD...? — Was it possible that the Law, holy and good as it was, could simply lead miserable men to death and ruin? No, it was not possible. It was not the Law that did this but Sin — acting, it is true, through the instrumentality of the Law. All this, however, only had for... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR WE KNOW. — There is no need to argue the question. We Christians all _know_ that the Law is spiritual. It is divinely given and inspired. On the other hand, man, though capable of communion with God, is dominated by that part of his nature which is the direct opposite of divine, and is entirely... [ Continue Reading ]
(14-25) Further and detailed proof why it was that though the Law appealed to all that was best in man, still he could not obey it.... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT WHICH I DO I ALLOW NOT. — Rather, _that which I perform I know not._ I act blindly, and without any conscious direction of the will; that higher part of me which should preside over and direct my actions, is kept down by the lower physical nature. WHICH I DO. — St. Paul uses three words for “t... [ Continue Reading ]
But the fact that I desire to do what is right is itself a witness to the excellence of the Law, which commands that which I desire.... [ Continue Reading ]
This, then, appears to be the true explanation of the difficulty. There is really a dualism in the soul. I am not to be identified with that lower self which is enthralled by sin.... [ Continue Reading ]
(18-20) Enthralled it is, and the will is powerless. What I do and what I will are opposite things. It is therefore sin that acts, and not I.... [ Continue Reading ]
I FIND THEN A LAW. — Of the many ways of taking this difficult verse, two seem to stand out as most plausible or possible. In any case “_a_ law” should be rather “_the_ law.” This is taken by the majority of commentators, including Bishop Ellicott, in the sense of “rule,” “habitually-repeated fact.”... [ Continue Reading ]
I DELIGHT. — “I delight in (and with) the Law of God.” I sympathise with and approve of it after the inward man, _i.e.,_ in the higher part of my being. “The inward man” corresponds nearly, though not quite, to the “law of my mind,” in the next verse. It stands rather midway between it and the spiri... [ Continue Reading ]
ANOTHER LAW. — A different law. “In my members,” _i.e.,_ that has its chief seat of activity in my members. This is the law of sin, which is ready to take advantage of every fleshly impulse.... [ Continue Reading ]
So this intestine struggle goes on unceasingly and reaches no decision, till at last the unhappy man cries out, almost in despair, “Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Who, that is, will help me to overcome these fleshly desires, gendered by a corrupt human nature, which are dragging... [ Continue Reading ]
It _has_ been released. It is Jesus our Lord to whom the thanks and praise are due. Though without His intervention there can only be a divided service. The mere human self serves with the mind the law of God, with the flesh the law of sin. I MYSELF. — Apart from and in opposition to the help which... [ Continue Reading ]